A drone operated by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office flies during a demonstration of a search and rescue operation on Friday, Aug. 14, 2015, in Dublin, Calif. As law enforcement joins the ranks of hobbyists sending drones into California skies, civil liberties advocates are raising the specter of unchecked police surveillance and state lawmakers are drafting limits.

Drones might be fun, if you’re a hobbyist. But lawmakers this week have been taking increasing aim at them, coast to coast, as ire continuesto build over their increasing confrontations with firefighters.

The latest…

State Sen. Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, has co-authored a bill making it a crime to fly a drone over a wildfire, she announced Wednesday.

SB 167 is intended to keep drones from causing a crash with emergency vehicles such as helicopters or planes that fight fires.

Those crashes have become real possibilities in several incidents this summer from San Bernardino County to San Diego County, prompting concern across the region, even during the recent Cabin Fire in San Gabriel Valley, where the FAA banned drones near the blaze.

“Firefighters face tremendous risk, and the last thing they need is to have a drone get in their way and potentially cause a catastrophic crash of public safety aircraft,” Bates said. “That is why we need to make it crystal clear that flying a drone in a fire zone is unacceptable and will be strongly punished. A person’s hobby should not put the lives of our firefighters at risk.”

Violators could face up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine. It is a misdemeanor to interfere with firefighting efforts, which is punishable by a $1,000 fine.

The bill was prompted by multiple incidents with drones nearly causing air accidents during efforts to fight wildfires. It is co-authored by state Sens. Ted Gaines, R-El Dorado, Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, and Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Glendale.

In San Bernardino County, the drone issue has prompted the Board of Supervisors to set aside $75,000 for a a reward for information leading to arrests of drone users who have flown their drones into recent firefights, forcing airtankers to be grounded.

And this week, top California fire officials told lawmakers that improper use of civilian drones is posing a danger to air crews and others fighting wildfires. More than a dozen such near misses have been reported just this summer, they reportedly told lawmakers.

As it stands, it’s a violation of the federal law to intefered with an aircraft.

New regulations to deal with the kinds of concerns legisaltors are worried about are reportedly at least year away.

On a related issue, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer Federal Aviation Administration is moving too slowly to implement rules requiring drone manufacturers to install technology that would prevent the aircraft from entering “no-fly zones” like airports,

Schumer told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he will propose an amendment to legislation funding the FAA this fall that would require manufacturers to implement geo-fencing or similar technology to prevent the unmanned aircraft from flying near airports and other sensitive security zones like the White House.

The action comes amid a spike in reports of unmanned aircraft sightings around the country. Schumer cited FAA statistics showing pilot sightings of drones jumped from 238 in 2014 to more than 650 by Aug. 9.

The New York Democrat noted there have been at least seven reported drone sightings by pilots at Kennedy and Newark airports in just the past week or so.

“It’s frightening,” he said in a telephone interview. “All you need is for one of these drones to fly into an engine and a tragedy would result. There have been too many incidents lately.”

He has advocated for Geo-fencing or other similar technology in the past, but said legislation is the only way to accelerate the process. He said manufacturers are already experimenting with software technology that would restrict where drones can fly. He wants the implementation to happen “right away.”

He expressed confidence he will receive support in Congress for the legislation he is proposing.

“When it comes to drones in the vicinity of commercial flights carrying hundreds of passengers at a time, the FAA has been playing whack-a-mole across the skies, and that’s certainly not good enough,” he said.

Schumer said drones are an important technology, and are helpful in collecting data, aiding with border patrol operations, agriculture, as well as training the military.

But there also are dangers, he said, adding that they include interfering with fires.

City News Service and the Associated Press contributed to this report.